Author's note: Hello, readers! How are you? Hopefully you and your loved ones are doing well despite the pandemic. The good news is the wait has finally come to an end. After completing the mountains of assignments given by my lecturers, I can finally continue this series. Hopefully you'll enjoy the rest of the chapters. Stay safe, and stay healthy! ❤️
"Kyoraku-taichou." called Asa, who was following the said man inside the Central 46 Compound, heading towards the eighth and lowest level of prison. "Don't mind me asking, but why did you ask me to join you?"
"Eh?" he innocently responded. "Is it wrong for me to a company with me?"
"Of course not." she assured with a sheepish smile. "But we're going to visit him."
The Captain let go of the cheerful facade, and his expression turned serious. Asa didn't know what the expect, for the jovial man had suddenly become quiet. She soon got her answer when he stopped in his tracks, forcing her to do the same, and blurted, "I know about the two of you."
That sentence alone made her blood turn cold. How did he know? Did she somehow get caught when she was sneaking in and reported it to him? Since he knew about it, what would happen to her next?
"Rest assured, Asa-chan." he said, turning around to face her with one hand tilting his straw hat down. Seeming to have heard the questions bombarding in her mind, he added, "You're not in trouble."
The said woman slowly released the breath that she unconsciously held. Albeit feeling relieved that she was not penalised, there was still one question that bothered her. "How did you know?" she meekly asked.
"It wasn't hard." he stated casually. "I sort of knew that you were snooping around here, plus that fact that he didn't kill you back at the Soukyoku Hill when he had the chance. So I kind of connected the dots."
Asa stared at the Captain for a while before softly heaving a sigh. "I see." was all she could say.
"Well, don't worry so much." he assured, giving her a light pat on her head. He then turned back around and continued making his way to Muken. "I'm just trying to get him to give us a little help. So I was hoping that he'd agree when he sees you."
'In other words, I'm just being used.' thought Asa with a sweat drop on the back of her head. Sighing for the umpteenth time, she trailed behind him as they began the descend the very stairs she used two years ago. As soon as they reached where he was placed, the ground shook momentarily. Asa needn't question what was happening. She looked up with her brows furrowed. 'The Soul King is dead. The Zero Division must have been defeated. At this rate, Seireitei- no, everything that's linked to Soul Society, everything made in Soul Society, the Dankai, Hueco Mundo, even the present world; everything will fall apart.'
"It's really shaking." commented Shunsui, who also felt the effect. "To think that it'd reach all the way here. The end is hear, for Soul Society." Taking a few steps forward to a semi-circle of keyholes lodged into the ground, he looked ahead and continued, "You can hear me, can't you? This is as far as we innocents can go. We won't go any further into the darkness. However, if it's you, you'd be able to hear me even from here, right? C'mon, answer me. Aizen Sousuke."
Upon hearing his name, Asa fixated her gaze on the darkness in front of her and Shunsui. It didn't take long for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, for she could finally see the figure of the man she had visited in this very place. 'Aizen.' she thought sadly, genuinely concerned about him despite his past doings.
"So no response, huh?" said Shunsui when all he got was silence. "Are you against the conversations using your reiatsu as well? Or could it be that even somebody with your power can't overcome this?" He took out a rectangular box and opened it, revealing a set of keys. "These are the keys to your seal. I've been allowed to use up to three of these." Asa's brows raised at this, as she watched him sit in front of the keyholes with the box while she stood behind, watching the whole scene unfold. "So let's start with the "mouth"."
Taking out the right key, Shunsui slid it into the keyhole. "Alright, now you won't need your reiatsu to answer me. Usually it'd take a long time for someone who's had their mouth sealed for two years to talk, but that isn't the case for you. Am I right?"
"Yeah."
The single-word response he received took him and Asa by surprise. 'No way.' thought the former, watching the prisoner take a step forward to reveal himself in the light. 'I've only unlocked the seal on his mouth. How did he manage to take off the rest?'
"Aizen..." whispered Asa, who couldn't believe that she was seeing him after some time. Never in her life would she had ever thought of seeing him again, after bidding him a bittersweet farewell to him back then.
The said man looked up, and his gaze softened when he saw who it was. "It has been a while, Asa." he greeted with a smile. "You have become more beautiful since the last time we met."
She returned the smile and playfully added, "And you still look the same."
After responding with a light chuckle, he looked at Shunsui with a cynical smile. "What's wrong?" he taunted. "You've still got two keys, haven't you?"
Shunsui stared back at him before using two more keys, causing Aizen to slightly furrow his brows. "This makes three." said the former. "So how foes your left eye and those ankles feel after such a long time?"
"I see." said Aizen. "You haven't changed at all."
"I'll take that as a compliment." said Shunsui while tilting his hat again. "Thanks." He then let go of it and looked into his eyes. "Do you want to leave this place?"
"I don't remember asking you to let me out." he said nonchalantly.
"Well, if you really didn't want to leave, you wouldn't have told me to use the remaining keys." responded the Captain.
Aizen hummed as a response. "Why would you go to such lengths, bringing the keys in here despite not wanting to free me? You even brought my former lieutenant as a means of trying to convince me to be part of your scheme, after knowing our past with each other."
Asa stared at Shunsui's back, for she herself was wondering what his motives behind all this were. She wasn't surprised by this. After being with her former Captain for some time prior to his betrayal, she knew that he wasn't someone who could be easily fooled. She remembered the times when she was being indirect with him on certain matters, and the next thing she knew, she was pinned to the wall inside his office and came face to face with her smirking Captain, who would not let her go until she was frank with him. Of course, the tables would turn on certain days. But nevertheless, it was either one had to get straight to the point with him, or don't bother bringing up the topic.
Shunsui stared at him momentarily before heaving a sigh and saying, "Good grief. You've seen right through me, haven't you?" He tugged the collar of his Shihakusho and showed two scars diagonally crossing each other which appeared to have been sewn not long. "It's true. I had to hide the keys inside myself, but the conditions given were "free only three parts"."
Aizen responded with another hum. "The doors to this place would forever remain shut if you were to be killed, huh?" he deduced. "So they've predicted that I'd probably kill you to take the keys also?" It was his turn to sigh before muttering, "That lot in the Central 46."
"Well, think of this as doing it for the sake of Soul Society." shrugged Shunsui. "Let's just leave things at that, shall we? Now, to the main point." He got up and stepped aside, revealing a chair brought by several attendants behind him. "Sit on this, be good, and let us take you all the way up, okay? It's been a long time since you've been out in Soul Society for some fresh air, hasn't it?" Aizen only stared at him with a poker face.
All of a sudden, one of the attendants stepped forward with a bind. "Pardon me." he said, catching Shunsui off guard. "Allow me to bind him once more before he sits down."
But the Captain knew what would happen if he were to do so. "Wait, don't-" It was too late. As the attendant took a few steps closer to Aizen, his fingers on both hands were sliced off, causing him to cry in pain as he stared at his partially destroyed hands.
"How much of a fool do you take me for." scoffed Aizen. "Those binds won't erase my Reiatsu. They'll only keep it around me. It's embarrassing how thoughtless you've become." He looked at the other attendants who were shaken up by the scenario and said, "Take a good look at what will happen to you if you come near me." He then looked at Shunsui and grabbed his attention by calling his full name. "The moment I sit on that chair and follow you outside, I am to lend my powers to Soul Society. Is that what you think?"
"I didn't say anything about needing you to fight for Soul Society." pointed out the Captain. "But I'm sure you, too, can see the advantages and disadvantages for us quite similar."
Aizen's smile widened with amusement. "You really are a very interesting one." he commented. "Do I want to breathe some of that fresh air, you ask? What fresh air could I possibly get from Soul Society now that Yhwach's done with it?" Despite that, he made his way towards the chair, to which the attendants backed away to prevent themselves getting hurt like their colleague. Once he sat on it, the attendants carried it up and brought him out of Muken.
"Asa-chan." called Shunsui, all of a sudden.
The said woman was about to follow the attendants when she heard her name being called. She turned around to face the Captain and said, "What is it?"
"I need you to play pretend." he said.
This only confused Asa, who blinked a few times and said, "Huh?"
"You need to go to where everyone is gathering at before we arrive." he explained carefully. "Once you're outside of the Central 46 Compound, get there as fast as possible, and pretend that you didn't meet me or Aizen."
"Why would I do that, Kyoraku-taichou?" she asked, still not understanding his weird demand.
"Imagine what would happen if people were to see Aizen freed from prison." was his reason, and that was more than enough to make her realise why he needed her to "play pretend". Shunsui took note of her expression and tilted his hat again. "You know what I'm trying to say, right? Not everyone is like you, Asa-chan. If they see that you're with us, they'll immediately brand you as a traitor when you and Aizen share a special bond that cannot be explained with the overly simplified concepts of "good" and "evil". I know you care deeply about him, but having the entire Soul Society turn your back against you because of that is not something that I promised Yama-jii. Also, how would Kuchiki-taichou react when he finds out that you'd snuck into Muken to visit Aizen?"
There were so many scenarios playing out inside her mind. Shunsui may sound cruel, but he meant no harm. Asa finally understood why Aizen had always told her that she was a kind Soul. She cared for him so much that she was willing to forgive him, the one who murdered her late husband. Who would go all out to sneak into the lowest level of prison, where there's nothing but darkness and solitude, just to visit him? In this entire universe, it would be only Asa. Imagine the look of betrayal on the faces of her friends, especially her lover who'd helped her to get to where she was. As much as she wants to not be shy about being there for Aizen, the consequences would only bring her more harm.
As one of her grandfather's students, Shunsui had witnessed her growing from a little girl who was the only one to put her grandfather in place when his temper ran short, to a strong and beautiful woman capable of many things in her life despite the ups and downs. But if there's one thing that hadn't changed is that Asa was a kind Soul. Too kind, he might add. Despite her terrifying powers, she never liked violence unless it was for the sake of protecting those in need. She was never the type to label things in life according to right or wrong, as what her peers would often do. It might sound like a good thing, but things get complicated when it comes to situations like her relationship with Aizen. Before the late Captain-Commander was killed in action, Shunsui had promised that he'd look after her like a daughter of his own, and the thought of the whole world scorning her for her actions would not put him at ease.
"I know it's hard, but I don't want people to think you're a traitor when we know that you're not." he said lowly.
"I understand, Kyoraku-taichou." assured Asa with a curt nod, although she felt sad about it. "I'll take my leave now, then."
"Yeah, see you there." he said.
With that, she used Flash Step to get to where Urahara had told everyone to gather. She swiftly moved from one building to another, making use of the vast amounts of Reiatsu leading her to wherever the rest of the Shinigami had gathered. She took note of her surrounding 'Where could they be?' she wondered before looking up to the sky. 'I hope everything is okay in the Soul King Palace.'
Asa's gaze then landed on her surrounding that felt so foreign to her. This place used to be her home; the place where she grew up with a loving grandfather who was always protecting it with his Zanpakutou as fiery as his temper, where she found friends whom she could count on when she needed them. She even found love and heartbreak with Michiro, and learned to do love again with Byakuya who taught her how to move on in life. This place meant so much to her; and now, she couldn't bring herself to see it in the same way, for she longer recognised what was what used to be called as Soul Society.
"Asa-nee!" The said woman looked down and noticed a familiar figure waving at her with both arms. He was standing in front of a building, where the trail of Reaitsu had led her to. Upon reaching her destination, she used Flash Step to get off from the tall building and stood next to a concerned Tadashi. "You okay?" he asked. "I was looking all over for you when Urahara called."
"Yes, I'm fine." she assured with a small smile. "I was busy for a moment."
"I see." he said, relieved that she was okay. "I take it that some of the Quincy had yet to back down even after the Auswählen." Asa merely nodded as a response, but if one were to look closely at her expression, one could tell that she was reluctant to lie about her whereabouts. But as Shunsui had told her, she had to keep up with her act.
Asa looked at the closed door where she felt a lot of Reiatsu belonging to those she knew. "What is happening right now?" she asked.
"Right now, Urahara is trying to get us to create a door that would take us to the Soul King Palace." explained Tadashi, following her gaze. "I told Urahara that I wasn't going to start unless I found you. But I guess you found me, instead." The two looked at each other and exchanged sheepish smiles, before he took a step forward to open the door. "Now let's join the others."